Engineered Benevolence
by DragonMancer
Summary: L thought he had escaped him. A dark story containing a depressed L and a...Beyond Birthday. LxBB. There will be violence. Maybe yaoi. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of its characters._

_____________________________________________________________________

The night was cold and unforgiving. Harsh white lightening sparked across the sky swiftly followed by the horrendous explosions of thunder. Rain fell in unrelenting torrents that pummelled into the ground with such a force that the shattered droplets leaped two feet in the air. Only fools would be out on such a night. Casual drinking parties, late night walkers, prostitutes and cold-blooded murderers and rapists; they would all be sheltering somewhere.

An icy wind whipped down the street, pulling the rain along in its wake, crashing into houses and toppling rubbish filled bins with ease. Spindly silver birches swayed dangerously, their roots and bows creaking and moaning with the excess pressure put upon them, a few being mercilessly ripped from the earth and thrown onto the sodden concrete pavement.

The low lament of violins attempted pathetically to smother the noise that battered the earth with a hells fury beyond the black, depthless, double glazed window. The stringed instruments fluttered to a tremulous crescendo before cutting off to allow a soloist a time to exhibit their talent. The solo jerked and leaped up and down the scales with a frivolity that seemed unfitting considering how dark and morbid the world seemed to be.

Two slender fingers pushed a pair of stark white headphones deeper into the rounded ears, trying to bury them towards the ear drum. The smooth screen of the silver iPod illuminated a small circle of the room as a furious thumb turned the volume up full. The blasting harmony of the orchestra filled the room in miniature and the storm, as if in a bout of twisted humour, seemed to become fiercer, louder.

With eyes screwed tight shut and the downy pillow firmly held over his head the detective fought against the noise and attempted to fall into the act of sleeping. He hadn't allowed himself the luxury in two nights, merely relying on a thirty minute nap in the afternoon to sustain him, that and his seemingly unlimited supply of sugar.

It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that the storm ended. By three O'clock the storm faded away to a distant rumble that seemed pathetic compared to its previous roaring fierceness. L had eventually found sleep during the dying groans of the thunder, his dreamless rest a god send to the young man. He slept soundly until 9am which was unusually late for the detective but his fatigue was not something to be taken lightly.

A nagging ringing cut through his rest, dragging him unwillingly from the sound rest that he had obtained. The dark orbs opened grudgingly, accompanied by several slow blinks as they adjusted to the light spilling in through the uncovered window. The genius slung his legs off the bed and allowed them to dangle freely as he regained full control over his body, attempting to use the remnants of the sugar from the night before to fuel his trip to the bathroom. The early moments after sleep had always been the worst for the detective.

***

The delicate, slender fingers combed through the mass of black hair that cascaded over the detective's forehead and eyes as he made his way through to the sitting room, his hunched figure moving with the decisiveness and speed of a prowling lion. His dark calculating eyes swept over the mess of sweet wrappers, half filled porcelain cups of tea and the occasional scattering of jelly bears. His eyes widened a fraction in realisation; the room was the cleanest it had been in weeks.

He looked across the piles of paper work and the wrappers of sugar laden foods as Watari entered the room, a fresh cup of hot tea held on a small tray. L gave him a slanting smile of thanks and stepped up onto his chair, accepting the tea and the bowl of sparkling sugar cubes. One after the other a cascade of no less than six sugar cubes dropped into the hot brown liquid, thickening it slightly. L raised the beverage to his lips, pinching the handle with thumb, index and middle finger.

The morning continued as such. Quiet. Hardly a word spoken in the apartment until the ex-police chief inspector and the majority of his team joined L sometime after ten. The investigation into Kira continued in the monotonous fashion it had seemed to adopt. The entire investigative team sat and looked over evidence, discussed possible leads and new killings but none could say for definite who Kira was or come up with a sure fire way of flushing him out into the open. The only time L took any interest in the proceedings was when Light Yagami arrived.

The teen was dressed in a dark red sweater and dark trousers, befitting the autumn style that he liked to adopt at the appropriate time of year. His light brown hair gleamed in the sunlight streaming through the window. L looked Light up and down. His suspicion was mounted high against the teen. In the detective's eyes the boy was the only person in the world that could be Kira.

"Good afternoon", Light greeted the entire team.

Light received a varying selection of responses to his greeting, ranging from a distracted grunt to an overly cheery 'hello' from Matsuda. L looked his young friend in the eye and nodded.

"Good afternoon Light-kun", L said softly between sips of yet more sweet tea. He liked the teen for the boy could think at his level and not need everything explained. The detective sighed and gently placed the now empty cup on the crowded glass table, plucking away sweet wrappers to clear a space. Sometimes he wished the boy would remain by his side simply for intellectual companionship, but he knew that that was impossible. L looked up when he felt Light's eyes hadn't yet left him.

"Is something wrong?" he asked the teen.

"I was about to ask you that Ryuzaki", Light replied, a sliver of concern laced in the smooth tones of his voice. L smiled and nodded.

"I appreciate your concern Light-kun. Be assured that my personal feelings will not hinder my judgement in the case."

"You're not answering my question."

But L had already stood and wandered to an adjoining room in which a dining table stood laden with paper work. He went over to the window and rested his hand against the cool clean glass. The world below him hurried past, supporting or hating Kira. How he wished he could be like them. To be one of the unknown masses who merely dreamed of saving the world. His vision blurred and refocused on the dim reflection of himself. L stared into the dark orbs of his twin and an involuntary shiver coursed down his spine when, for a split second, the reflections eyes snapped from coal black to blood red. The detective stepped back from the window burying his hands into his baggy jeans.

That psychopath was gone. And L was hidden.

***

Thumb and slender fore finger plucked the stray eyelash from his pale cheek. He was once told that if you closed your eyes and made a wish whilst blowing away an eyelash your wish would be granted.

He wiped the eyelash off his finger tip on the leg of his baggy jeans whilst staring at his red eyes in the mirror.


	2. Chapter 2

_Just to let you know that I have never read 'Another Note' and so my knowledge of Beyond Birthday and his…interests comes strictly from Fan Fiction. _

_Please don't flame me if I get things wrong._

_Helpful advice would be just as good._

***

Watari bowed slightly to the group when he entered the room. A crisp white sheet of paper was held in his hand by his side. Without a word he passed it to L and bowed once more before leaving. Ever the gentleman was Watari.

L pinched the printed page between thumb and index finger, his eyes skimming over the type. He frowned; an unusual expression to see on his face considering his face was almost always blank and unreadable. He sat for a long while staring at the page. It was several minutes before L came out of the trance he appeared to have been in and carelessly dropped the page onto the table next to him, disregarding it on top of rubbish, sugar and tea. He didn't look at it again.

Although L was queried as to the contents of the page several times he never once told the team what it was about and none of them dared pick it up when the detective's back was turned. Even Light respected L's privacy and left it alone. The day wore on, possible suspects were mentioned and dismissed, and verbal fights between L and Light arose and were quelled. As usual, thought the detective, a very monotonous day.

In the late hours of the night the investigative group left L's apartment, dispersing into the specially built hotel or, in the case of a select few, left the building completely and went home to their families.

L was left sitting alone looking at the multitude of television monitors that sat staring silently back at him. He could feel the presence of the piece of paper lying next to him on the table, half buried in plates and fresh sweets. He looked side long at it, his shadowed owl eyes focussing on the strings of black type that flared on the white surface. The detective grimaced and looked away, not wanting to show an interest in the case. But when he closed his eyes he saw what he most feared looking back at him. Crouched in a pool of light, blood pooling around his feet and red eyes staring maliciously at him, the form vividly embedded within L's memory grinned and raised his thumb to his lips.

The detective's eyes jerked open and his brow was covered in a cold sweat that was wiped off with the back of his hand. He stood and picked up the paper, whipping it out from beneath the pile of rubbish and crockery, before walking out the room to find Watari.

"Watari, please could you contact Michael-san?"

"Already done", said Watari, handing L a phone with a slight smile concealed beneath his moustache.

"You know me too well Watari-san."

The man bowed slightly then turned and left the apartment. L never queried where Watari went but it always seemed to benefit the young detective. He raised the phone to his ear, awkwardly held between two fingers and elbow raised high in the air.

"L. It's good to speak to you again."

"Michael-san it's a pleasure to hear that you are still alive."

"Look, could we possibly speak in English? Japanese is giving me a head-ache already", the man on the other end of the line stumbled through the sentence which L had to half reconstruct in his mind.

"But of course", said the detective reverting to English although he had no distinguishable accent, "is what you said in the e-mail true?"

"Unfortunately, yes. It has all the hallmarks and well the…umm…engraving confirms it in its own way."

"Do you have any pictures Michael?"

"You're a sick man L", Michael said with a slight laugh in his voice. L had walked through to his bedroom where he had left his white laptop sitting precariously on the bed-side table. He logged on and waited for the machine to warm up.

"Michael", L said firmly.

"Yeah I e-mailed them to Watari who said he would pass them onto you."

L went into his e-mail account, and true enough there was a message from Watari right at the top of the list. L felt his heart flutter and his stomach lurch as a rush of adrenaline rushed through his veins, making his blood feel cold inside his limbs. His slender finger hovered over the mouse, the cursor in turn hovering over the e-mail, waiting to command the piece of electronic mail to open. Michael remained silent, used to the prolonged periods of silence on the phone when talking to the detective. L eventually clicked the mouse, the cursor blinked and the e-mail opened. Even the detective's hardened nerves could hardly stand the images that appeared before him.

The first was of a young Japanese woman, lying naked on a dark grey floor. Her tanned skin that one would have presumed to be smooth was hacked and ripped open. Her stomach had deep gashes across it, the skin pulled back and exposing the muscle and entrails beneath. Her breasts were mutilated to a point where one didn't even seem to exist any more. The more L looked at the woman the more he wanted to scream and turn away from the machine. But he forced his eyes to look, to take in every detail from the remaining toes to the bleeding scalp. What disturbed him more was that her face was calm, unharmed almost, save for a letter L which was carved into her plump cheek.

"Who is the woman?" L asked Michael abruptly.

"A prostitute as far as we know. We are trying to trace a family but," there was a pause as Michael took a drag from a cigarette; "we can't find anything yet."

L scrolled down and his eyes narrowed at the next picture. The next was of a man lying, again naked, on a clean tiled floor. The man's body had suffered the same treatment as the woman but had been taken a stage further. In his right hand he clenched a part of his anatomy which L only glanced at for a moment, his legs subconsciously squeezing slightly together. The letter L was scoured into his left cheek.

"The man?" asked L, his voice quieter.

"A bio-chemist working for an American lab", Michael had been smoking throughout the silence, seeing what L was seeing in his minds eye.

The detective scrolled down the e-mail to the last picture but instantly closed the window down, pushing himself away from the laptop across his bed. The last picture had been of two small children, their bodies shredded and bloodied and, L presumed, with his 'name' scratched into their young pale skin.

"I take it you have seen the last picture?"

"It is him. I thought he was dead."

"Well obviously he is not."

"Do you have any more information on him?"

"Nothing. He did what he did and has vanished. I can tell you that the children were German tourists found in a flat in London."

"Contact me if you find anything."

L hung up the phone with the touch of a button. He sat for nearly two hours, knees pulled up to his chest and thumb held between his lips. His calculating mind delved into every possible place the psychopath could be hiding, every plan he could be thinking up and any possible victims he would want to target.

L looked out of the window at the city lights and blinked slowly.

_Beyond Birthday, _he thought and scratched behind his ear, rolling the name around his mind, _Beyond Birthday._


	3. Chapter 3

_Thank you for your reviews everyone, they are really keeping me motivated to do this story (although I know that it has been a while since I last posted). It's also good to hear that you like my writing. _

_As I said in the last chapter, if I get anything wrong (factually) please just tell me and I will do my best to fix it._

***

He had followed the old man for several hours now. He had begun following him at a small café in which he seemed to be exchanging money for a brief case, a rather backward transition in his mind but obviously the detective had dire need for the contents of the black leather case. Popping a lime green jelly bear into his mouth he watched Watari leave the café and stride off along the street, looking like any other business man of whom there were many in the bustling city.

Beyond followed several meters behind, flaming red eyes focussed solely on the pinstriped back of his obsessions right hand man. It was so easy now, so easy that it seemed too easy. But despite these seeds of doubt the young man refused to let the opportunity slip away and pursued Watari with the eagerness of a hungry wolf.

Watari's grip on the polished handle of the briefcase tightened as he walked along. He took a swift glance down the street he had been walking when he turned right, catching the briefest of glimpses of who he thought was his employer and an icy sweat instantly covered his body, despite his usual cool composure. Keeping his pace steady he acted as if he hadn't seen the psychopath following him and simply continued along his route, aiming for the hotel; his only hope of safety. The bright light of the midday sun glinted off of Watari's glasses, hiding his troubled eyes from passers by, although he knew if they were seen few would spare a moment to think about an old business man's troubles.

Turning left he crossed the road at a pedestrian crossing, praying that Beyond would be caught by the lights and he would have several seconds to lose him but unfortunately luck was not on his side and Watari had to maintain the act of ignorance, which was becoming harder and harder as memories of the past crept into his mind, giving birth to a multitude of horrific thoughts and fears.

Beyond Birthday - with hands forced deep into faded denim jean pockets and posture slouched - shuffled along behind Watari, knowing that he had been spotted but curious to see how the old man would react. He seemed to be playing dumb at the moment, Beyond noticing little change in the man's pace and his shoulders had only tensed a fraction; he had been trained well for such a situation. Beyond then wondered if such a situation had ever arisen before but soon concluded that it would have been highly improbable if it hadn't given L's choice of occupation, which came with sometimes unforeseeable health hazards. Watari changed direction once again and like a delayed shadow Beyond followed.

Picking up his pace, Watari lightly jogged to the front steps of the hotel, and kept up the pace as he ascended them. When he reached the top he stopped for the briefest moment, adjusting tie and hat before striding confidently through the glimmering revolving doors into the lobby.

He knew he was leaving Beyond in the streets, knowing that the young man would not dare follow now that he was in the confines of the hotel and under the watch of hundreds of surveillance cameras. Watari moved through the lobby and climbed the first flight of stairs, walking purposefully down the thickly carpeted hallway to the fire exit and left the hotel via a back stairway designed for the use of emergencies but was obviously often used for many more purposes due to the amount of cigarette ends scattered over the stairwell and graffiti scrawled across the walls.

Of course he hadn't gone to the hotel in which L resided. He had been working for the young detective for years and knew that to lead his enemies straight to him would be the most idiotic thing imaginable. Leaving the back alley Watari got in the first cab that stopped for him and gave the driver the address of a run down apartment building a block from the hotel where L was staying.

Knowing that he had lost Beyond for the moment, Watari allowed himself to relax, but not completely. The fact that the stuff of nightmares was alive was bad enough, but the fact that he was in the same city as the man he was dangerously obsessed with was worse than anything imaginable.

***

Watari stood in front of L as the detective sat with his thumb between his lips, eyes hooded in thought. Watari had reported to the detective everything that had happened since he had left to collect the brief case from an agent Michael had sent and that included being followed by Beyond Birthday. The detective had been silent for ten minutes after Watari had finished his report and was evidently distressed by the news.

"Does he know where I am?"

"No. I took great care in losing him and made sure that he hadn't managed to follow me once I got out of the cab."

"We must not underestimate him, Watari."

"I know."

L looked up at Watari and nodded his dismissal. Once Watari had left, L opened the brief case which had been laying on the glass topped coffee table in front of him and sifted through the multitude of evidence which had been gathered from the crimes that Michael and himself had discussed the previous night. He couldn't allow Light and the others to know about this investigation, or Beyond; it would be far too complicated. Better the entire thing was kept to himself, so with a gentle sigh L continued to work his way through the papers, holding them up and scanning each meticulously, pondering over everything he knew of Beyond Birthday and all the while feeling like a cornered mouse, awaiting the death blow.


End file.
